I woke up in my room in the Blue Wind Pavilion.

My frantic state of mind competed against the lack of adrenaline in my system, leaving my body in a confused state. My mind wanted to get up and run, but my body was relaxed.

After taking several deep breaths, I calmed down and assessed my situation.

Who had killed me?

Not the assassin. The person holding the knife made no difference to me. Who was the one giving him orders? I tried to think through who I had offended and who had the means to order my death.

More importantly, what could I do to prevent it from happening again?

The assassin’s words about my ‘next life’ immediately made me think that, somehow, the Earthly Dao had arranged things behind the scenes, but I discounted that. If the Earthly Dao had a problem with what I was doing, it could damn well tell me to my face, as it had done in the past. In any case, the Dao would do whatever it wanted. I didn’t know what it did or did not want me to do, and trying to avoid its punishments was futile, so there was little point in continuing this line of reasoning.

What did I know? The assassin had used some type of illusion or stealth technique. It reminded me of the man from the Dragon Gate Festival, but with that man, I could see him in qi vision. I couldn’t rule out that he might have improved his technique, but if one person could turn invisible, I had to assume that plenty of others could as well.

I hadn’t been attacked inside the Wastes, which made sense. I was already a Peak Grandmaster, and even if an assassin could easily overpower me, if his cultivation base was the same level as mine, it would have been possible for me to escape. So, the killer was almost certainly a Lord, and as such, he wouldn’t have been able to enter the Wastes.

Someone had tracked me, knew when I entered Rising Sun, and used that opportunity to kill me.

My first suspect was the young master from Rising Sun who I had encountered during the Dragon Gate Festival. He was the one who had recruited that illusionist. He didn’t have much of a reason to kill me, but people like him didn’t need a reason. I had been with SuYin when she ‘opposed’ him, and if he couldn’t target SuYin or the Verdant Forest Sect, his ire might have shifted to me. It was even possible that SuYin had done more to antagonize him after we parted, making him even angrier.

That ‘young master’ also had easy access to the means necessary to arrange my death. He was a man of standing in Rising Sun, so he could easily give a group of minions a list of people to watch out for. Then, when I was spotted, my death warrant could have been triggered automatically. He could have even set this up years in the past and not even known or cared about my death when it happened.

Even if this young master hadn’t been the cause of my death, I still needed to ensure that I didn’t cross paths with him again. I still wanted to send SuYin to learn herbalism for me, but I needed to do so in a different way.

Another person with easy means but a suspect motive was the branch manager of Rising Sun’s Blue Wind Pavilion. As an empire-level branch manager, he would be a Martial King. It wouldn’t be strange for him to have several Lord-level underlings that he could send to assassinate me, and he would have known that I was in the capital city, since WuJing went to retrieve the cultivation manual for me.

But would he want to kill me? I was leaving his territory, and WuJing’s behavior made me feel like I was slipping away in the night. It felt like it would be too petty for a King to care so much about a lowly Rank 3 alchemist, but I didn’t know anything about the man’s personality, so I couldn’t completely rule it out.

Here, I could be less ostentatious. I didn’t need to appear on the higher-ups’ radar until later in life. I needed to find a place where I could study and learn Rank 4 alchemy, and it would be hard to stay out of the limelight after I reached that point. However, by staying low-key until I reached a place that I wanted to make my long-term home, fewer people would be intent on stopping my movements.

The final possible masterminds behind my assassination were Alchemist Gao, Master Zhong, and Deputy Manager Liu. Unfortunately, at this point, I had already started a feud with Gao and Zhong, and they had already been kicked out of the Pavilion. They only seemed to be connected to Grandmaster-level figures, though, so I shouldn’t need to worry too much about them. Still, the next time around, I would need to be more wary of starting feuds for no good reason.

As for Manager Liu, he wasn’t too powerful, but it seemed like he had the backing of someone higher up in the Pavilion, and that was the person I needed to avoid offending. Since I had driven away Zhong, I was already on bad terms with Liu, but we hadn’t broken off all pretenses of cordiality yet. It wasn’t until I had made Rank 3 pills that we had truly become irreconcilable last time. That was when I was brought into the fold of Manager Cai’s faction and became a powerful tool against him.

I would avoid making Rank 3 pills until I was a Grandmaster in this life, and I would be more conspicuous when I did so, announcing what I was doing beforehand. This would avoid the situation where I had slapped his face so hard the last time. Depending on circumstances, it may even be better if I didn’t make any such pills until after leaving the Wastes.

So, my plan was set: send SuYin to learn herbalism through other means and don’t sell any Perfect Rank 3 pills until after reaching Grandmaster. Doing these two things should prevent that assassin from being sent against me, but it wasn’t a guarantee. Gao and Zhong were still a hidden danger, and I couldn’t be sure that the assassin wasn’t directly connected to them. So, my final decision was to ascend as fast as I could. This way, even if I died early, I would gain Peak Grandmaster-level credits, and this life wouldn’t be a complete write-off.

I also might need to look into what protections I could buy through the Pavilion. If my enemies kept sending high-level opponents against me, I would be dead no matter what. But if I could buy enough protection to advance just a single step further in my cultivation, the credits I earned would be well worth the investment of a few gold.

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With this plan in mind, I set aside my concerns about assassinations for the time being.

I had a million credits to spend, and I needed to use them all at once to maximize the benefit of the discount that I had received. What was the best way to approach this?

“System, how much to make all my current affinities permanent?”

Cost 1,892,500 credits. Discounted cost 946,250 credits.

“That should be the basic cost of the affinities. Don’t I get a discount, since I already have them as temporary affinities?”

No such discount is available.

There was nothing I could do to change the situation, so I moved on.

I felt like I had been bitten too many times by not having a large enough storage space. I wanted to fix that with the spatial fire seed, but it could be dozens of lives before I was able to get it. If I had a large enough space, I could have stored Rank 3 techniques while I was in the sect, or I could have stored the Rank 4 technique that I had just received from WuJing. My storage space didn’t need to be massive, but I wanted to at least be able to fit a few extra high-level manuals in it.

Technique manuals could be written on bamboo slips, on paper scrolls, or in books, so I would need a space capable of storing any of these possibilities.

“System, how much to add a section to my storage space that’s 50 cm by 15 cm by 10 cm?”

Cost 225,000 credits. Discounted cost 112,500 credits.

I wanted to purchase this, but I didn’t want to purchase it immediately. I would need to pick next time.

My biggest problem was that damn discount. It was like a millstone around my neck. I needed to spend it on my affinities, so purchasing permanent affinities had to be my next purchase, but my affinities were already boosted by the temporary purchases I had made in the past. There was no reason to immediately jump to make them permanent, but spending that discount on anything else would be a waste.

In the end, I decided to put my purchasing decisions on hold. It would be better to have a clearer picture of what I needed and wanted in this life before spending credits on things that wouldn’t help me.

Finally, remembering where I was and why I was here, I cleared my mind and started cultivating.

I had entered seclusion to break through to Martial Master. I had gained a lot of confidence in my Rank 2 cultivation technique, so I was ready to rush it as hard as I could.

I had no reservations about mental deviations. From everything I had seen, as long as my meridians were placed correctly, I wouldn’t need to worry about them. And, with the experience and knowledge that I had gained from my enlightenments, I was confident that I could place them correctly.

In my last life, I spent a total of three months researching my cultivation technique and breaking through to Martial Master 1. This time, after those same three months, I left my cultivation chamber as a Martial Master 3. I wanted to go further, but I had run out of Meridian Builder Pills, and I had to keep to my deadline with Mei.

I opened the door of my apartment, and she was already standing right outside. When she saw me, she furrowed her brow in confusion, but only for a moment. She quickly regained her composure, calmly walked inside, and headed straight for my cultivation chamber. She wasn’t the excited girl from my last life.

Working in tandem, I quickly raised her cultivation base to Martial Master 1. We both knew what to do, and everything went smoothly.

Unlike last time, I did not suddenly go out and buy Rank 3 ingredients. Instead, I focused on making enough pills to support SuYin, Mei, and myself for our rise through the Martial Master realm. They were using Peak-Yellow techniques, so it was easy for me to quickly help them construct their meridians, but I continued to use my Peak-Profound technique, so constructing my meridians took significantly longer.

Altogether, the three of us reached Peak Master before even two full years had passed.

Part of the reason for this speed was that we hadn’t allowed any time for our qi or cultivation bases to settle between advancements. We knew where our meridians were supposed to go, and we placed them accurately, regardless of the turbulence it caused.

During these years, I was careful not to do anything to cause public criticism of my actions.

WuJing gave me advice on what I should and shouldn’t do, but frankly, I didn’t put too much stock in these suggestions. While I didn’t believe that WuJing was trying to lead me astray, I no longer felt that he had a complete grasp of all the factors at play. After all, Manager Liu was targeting him, someone high up in the Pavilion was backing Liu, and Manager Cai was stirring the pot to get Liu to target both me and WuJing.

Instead, I began putting more trust in Mei. With her blessing, she would be able to guide me through the deep waters of the Pavilion’s politics, even if she didn’t know many of the details.

I was leery of putting so much faith in a single person, especially since I wasn’t trusting Mei–I was trusting her blessing, and that blessing didn’t necessarily have my best interests in mind. Still, I wouldn’t be able to do everything I needed to do on my own. I needed to rely on someone, and as far as I could tell, the best ‘someone’ I could rely on was Mei.

However, in truth, this wasn’t a matter of complete, blind trust. It was a test.

Would Mei–Mei’s blessing–help me? Would it guide her to betray me?

From what I had seen, the guidance of her blessing extended beyond what was best for her in any given timeline. I felt that her blessing somehow considered what would happen in future lives, not just the current one, but I wasn’t sure. I wanted to give it a little more rope to see what would happen.

Mei, SuYin, and I gathered in my apartment to make a crucial decision.

I gave the younger girl a sad smile. “SuYin, you need to decide what you want to do. I don’t know enough about herbalism to be able to teach you, so if you want to learn, you will need to go to one of the sects. The Verdant Forest is the best option, but that path will be a difficult one. You’ll need to travel outside the Wastes alone, and even if I help you advance to Grandmaster, it isn’t certain that you’ll be accepted. The Verdant Fields is in the Wastes, and we can have a bodyguard escort you there. Joining them won’t be a problem, but it’s hard to say if you’ll be promoted to the Verdant Forest in the future.”

SuYin looked at the floor, fidgeting with her hands. “What do you think I should do?”

“I don’t know.” I looked at her, but she didn’t meet my eyes. “Both options have potential. The main difference is that, if you go to Verdant Fields, you shouldn’t advance to Grandmaster until after you have been there for a while. It will be easier to acclimate as a Master, and at your age, being a Grandmaster in the Wastes is a bit too conspicuous.”

SuYin didn’t respond. I was putting her under a lot of pressure, but I didn't have any other option. Mei and I had other goals to accomplish, and we couldn’t coddle her.

After giving SuYin time to think, I looked at the girl next to her. “Mei.”

Mei stood up and took SuYin’s hand. Then, they walked into my bedroom and talked privately for a long time before emerging.

When they did, SuYin was silent, and Mei gave me a short nod. “She’ll go to Verdant Fields.”

Decision made, we arranged travel plans and guards to safely take SuYin to the sect. Then, Mei and I prepared for our own journey.

“Are you sure that we should leave on our own without waiting for WuJing’s promotion?”

“Yes.” Mei’s voice was filled with absolute confidence.